Fantasy Dreamin' - A Canada Coma Story
by sheepamongtheothers
Summary: As a small sequel to the epilogue in "You Done Goofed, Gilbert", Canada wakes up in a fantasy world, surrounded by people who remind him of his nation friends and coworkers. As Canada settles into the world of his new fantasy friends, he has to help them on the adventure of a lifetime; Killing a super tough dragon. ((Some light CuCan, and implied CuCan and Germerica through OC's))
1. Well Shit, That Happened!

"It's my birthday, and I'm the one getting coffee?" I teased over the phone installed in my car. I was driving over to a world meeting, with two Tim Hortons coffees in the cup holders, one for me, and my boyfriend Carlos. Gilbert also begged for me to get him one of those maple donuts, and he's as persistent in begging as Alfred, though I at least trust Gilbert to pay me back. Carlos laughed apologetically over the line.

"I know I know, though trust me, I'll make it up to you tonight, you'll forget all about this!"

"You've been awfully vague about this surprise," I said teasingly. "Should I be preparing myself for something special, or are you gonna handle that?~"

"Well," he said, and you could hear him blushing through the speaker, "that might just be the product of this surprise, but we'll see~" We laughed at our unprofessionalism in a work environment. "Anyways," he said, and I waited for him to finish. But I didn't hear anything.

What I felt though, was dizzy. I've had vertigo before, but this hit me heavier than a plane. My vision went from clear to blurry to growing spots of dark blue and purple and black, and I tried to break but I fumbled and just went faster. I flung the wheel to the right and turned into the meeting building's parking lot but my feet were off the pedals and I couldn't break and I saw the stone sign for the building right in front of me coming closer and-

And then my vision went black for a moment, and then I woke up. And I was on the ground. I was staring up, trees in a circle around me. I only remembered passing out and I think crashing my car? But the moment was a little fuzzy. I sat up carefully, not making any sudden movements, but learned quickly with relief that none of my bones were broken. Actually, it was a little bit worrying at how much pain I wasn't in. But the silence was rudely interrupted by a bolt of something hitting into the grass beside me.

"Aw shoot! Missed 'im!" I heard a very southern voice yell. Turning myself around startled, I saw a young man jump out of a very old-west styled wagon, followed by a crew of about 8 others. A grizzled man in his 60's sporting a very bushy, beard, and an equally grizzled and southern voice yelled at the young man.

"I told you no wild shootin, boy!"

"Whatever old man, you can't tell me how to use my own wand!"

"I gave you that wand! I made that very wand with my own old hands!"

"I wanna fight too!" Said a young boy, with ginger hair, and face covered in freckles, though he had some resembelence to the old man. Maybe a grandson. This southern accent seemed to be a reoccurring theme. He was also wearing a big floppy wizard's hat.

"No!" Both the young and old men yelled, and the young boy sunk backwards, pouting.

"Fine!" The young boy yelled back, and then started walking towards me.

"Lijal! You can't just walk to potential threats!" Yelled the young man.

"Oh, I say let him go," spoke up another older man, also sporting a bushy beard, with some kind of accent, though the closest thing I could really place it to was Russian, but only barely. "He's magically capable enough to defend himself,"

"Thank ya', Ervil!" Lijal said cheerfully, taking out a small wand, and when Lijal reached me, instead of pointing the wand at me, he reached out a hand, offering to help me up. "You don't look that nasty, what's yer name, stranger? I'm Lijal!"

"... Matthew," I said, taking his hand, and standing up. "So, you guys.. Travellers?"

"We're adventurers!" Lijal exclaimed, and then was pulled back by a kind looking older woman.

"Don't go pestering the handsome young man, Lijal," she said. She spoke calmly with no accent, but if voices had an aftertaste, then this woman's was flirty. "You know you're here because Yanmar is getting too old for adventuring."

"I know I know, but we never meet anyone but gerblin's and other nasty folks out here!" Lijal was very excited.

"Don't worry, I don't think I'm capable of hurting any of you," I said.

"Well sure you are!" Lijal exclaimed. "Look at yer fancy wand! That oughta do some damage!" Confused, I looked down at myself, and discovered something very, very strange.

Over an old-styled suit, I found myself wearing a large poncho, one I somehow hadn't noticed before. On my belt was a hostler, where I pulled out indeed, a very fancy looking wand. It was white oak, and at the tip it branched into a circle, and within was small glowing threads, all holding onto a blue jewel that was placed in the middle.

"What the ffffffff,,," I stopped myself in front of Lijal.

"It's alright there sir! I know lotsa swears thanks to gramps!"

"Swears you shouldn't be saying, Lijal," the older woman interrupted. She turned back to me. "Sorry for interrupting your meditation, sir Matthew, I've heard how you elvish folk like your quiet times."

"Elvish-what? I'm not-" I instinctively put my hands to my ears, and sure enough, felt some very, very, very long elvish ears, that were also kind of furry. And looking around, I realized that this was the same for a lot of these other people. Lijal's were covered by his big floppy wizard's hat, his grandfather was wearing a hood, as was the young man. The woman had slightly pointy ears, but the biggest feature about her was a tail, now no longer hiding behind her back. I sat down, a lot more than shocked, realizing I had woken up in some Lord Of The Rings world. "Oh my god," I mumbled. "I'm dead."

"No yer not!" Said Lijal, a but confused but keeping his enthusiasm. "Adail missed his shot!"

"No, no, no, you don't understand, Lijal. I'm not, I don't, I.. I don't belong here, I'm not from here, I should be here."

Adail, the young man, spoke up. "You mean like those scrolls about travelling to different worlds by dyin?"

"That's surprisingly accurate? But yeah, like that. I-I was driving, and I hit something and I woke up here. No one in my world has long ears or, or tails."

"Welp... That's weird!" Adail, and the rest of his team, was surprisingly okay with what I was saying. "You know what, I think we can help you out a bit!"

"You, you do? How?"

"Well, if there's anyone who's wise enough to deal with other-worldly folk, it's our pal the village immortal Panala! She's got lotsa knowledge in magic 'n stuff, and she's real old, so I think she can probably help you!"

"We're on our way back to the village anyways," said the older woman, "and it'd be inhospitable to not let a kind soul like you not tag along."

"And you kinda look like my daddy!" Exclaimed Lijal. That took me back a bit. But to be honest, I felt a little flattered.

"O-oh, thanks. You remind me of a kid I know too. A real talented little guy with a lot of unrecognized potential," I flattered Lijal. And I wasn't wrong. In fact, all of these people reminded me of other nations. Adail as Alfred, Ervil as Russia, the older woman as France, "Gramps" as England, even Lijal reminded me of Sealand.

Lijal's eyes widened with amazement. "Gramps, can Matthew stay with us forever?" I laughed.

"Only until he can figure out how to get back to his home," said Gramps. "I'm sure he's got his own boy waitin' for 'im."

"Unfortunately, I'm no father. But I do have a very dependant pet to look after. I love him, but bears can be such a pain to deal with." Lijal's eyes widened even more than I thought possible. He threw his hands into the air.

"Waaaahhhhh? You have a pet bear! That's so cool mister!" He ran to the wagon to share this information with the three other women hanging back. I could hear him just yelling in the distance, "He has! A pet bear!" And the three women were amused by Lijal, one of the three even going around jumping with Lijal at the news. Soon those two jumped back to me. "How d'ya take care of a pet bear? Does it eat lotsa fish?"

"Quite a lot, usually I buy it fresh from a nearby market, but sometimes I go fishing myself. Though a real meal for him are seals." Lijal looked a bit confused.

"What's'a seal?" He asked.

"Oh, they live in colder climates, on the ice and snow on the oceans. They're like if dogs were slick, had a tail, no ears, and fins for front paws."

"That's a lil weird but it sounds real neat!" Lijal said, happy again. "This is my best friend Sylvestre!"

The woman who jumped with Lijal, a middle aged human, spoke with cheer that reminded me of Venenziano. "Pleased to meet you, bear tamer!" She spoke with a slightly Irish accent. She was covered in freckles, like Lijal, except, these freckles were glowing. She must have caught me staring, as she said "Aw, these spots aren't much of a big deal, it's mostly a visualization of magic. Kinda like those threads on that pretty wand of yours!"

The older flirty woman spoke up again. "Ah! How rude of me, I haven't even introduced us all. My name is Lunin Peck, I'm Adail's biological mother, and Lijal's grandmother. My other son Maural is at home with his wife on parental leave with a new baby." Lijal interrupted with a "I'm a big brother! So cool!" And then Lunin continued. "My ex-husband, Varvial, is this grumpy old sag," she gestured to Gramps, who scoffed. "We had it going good for a while, but just eventually fell out of love. I do love my family very much though."

"We're the Vallance family!" Adail piped up. "Our family have been well-known adventurers for generations!"

"Yes, you're celebrities. Anyways, that's Ervil, Varvial's current husband, and these three are Slyvestre, Maribea, and Wiykai." Lunin gestured to the cheerful older woman, a calmer older woman in the back, and a more serious, but younger woman beside the former. "You said you're name was Matthew?"

"Oh! Yes, Matthew Williams, it's a pleasure to meet you all." I stuck out my hand to shake Lunin's, though realized I was still clutching onto my fancy wand. "Oh, whoops, forgot I was holding that," I said, putting it away. I shook Lunin's hand, as Lijal then shook mine very enthusiastically. "How old are you, Lijal? Didn't your dad say anything about being too young for adventuring?"

"I'm only 9! It's not that young! Plus I can do a good healing spell like my dad! Hey, can you do magic mister? You got a cool wand but you said you ain't supposed to be here!"

I chuckled, remembering the old days. "I used to do magic, a long, long time ago. But not anymore. I don't even think I can anymore."

"Well why dontcha try? Can't hurt!" Lijal was right, I couldn't deny it. I took back out the wand, and tried channeling magic how I used to as a child. I could see the glowing threads glow brighter, and the threads themselves started moving as if they were suddenly loose, and soon the jewel was glowing, and to make sure I didn't hit anyone with only God knows what I was doing, I flung myself around, aiming at a nearby tree, around 30 feet away.

And then the tree exploded from within. Blue flames that I could feel from the distance raged. But there was no heat. The flames burned cold, and sent a chill up my spine.

"What the fuck!" Adail exclaimed.

"What the fuck!" I yelled back.

"What the fuck!" Lijal yelled, for the fun of it. "Were you always doin that a long long time ago?"

"I-n-no! I don't know what that was! Oh, god, is anyone hurt?" My question was followed by a crowd of "no!" and "we're okay!"

Varvial put a hand on my shoulder, making me jump a little. "You've got a lot of magic built up in you. Does this non-elf, no-tails world of yours got more talent like you?"

"... I mean, probably? Magic was kind of outlawed when I was a kid. And my age, as you'll find out later, is a very tricky situation. But... it's nice to know I still have it in me."

Varvial smiled. "Magic is a good way to connect folks and family." He turned to the rest of his group. "We should head out now, the town's still nearly 3 days away, and we're only increasing the amount of time we gotta spend in these woods by being here." Lijal shivered.

"I had to fight off a bunch of crystal scorpions when I woke up, and I just wanted to use the hole!"

"Then let's move out! Matthew, yer with us."

"Oh! Right, thank you so much!" And with that, we set off.


	2. Exposition Around The Campfire

Our 2 day trip was spent mostly Varvial teaching me basic spells, and Lijal telling me about his dad, who's name I learned was Maural. A day and a half into our travels, we were seated around a campfire later at night, eating dinner as Lijal finished up his whole family history.

"And now I got a new baby sister who daddy's takin' care of while mama's workin on her paintin' n stuff! She sells art like I said. My sister's name is Pip! She's real quiet like daddy." I chuckled.

"You miss your dad, Lijal? You mentioned this was your first adventure without him." Lijal paused, and sheepishly nodded a bit. He poked the fire we were sitting around with a stick.

"'t's kinda scary without 'im," he said quietly.

"Aw, no need t' worry, Lijal! You got the rest of yer family lookin out for ya!" Adail was a kind uncle. Loud, but kind. I'd learned that he and Maribea were actually recently married. This was their first trip out since their honeymoon ended. "So, Matthew, I'm dying to know, what's this whole weird aging thing you mentioned?"

"Oh, it's kind of... Difficult to explain. You know what an immortal is?" Adail and the rest nodded. "It's sort of like that. I am connected to a piece of land, I think a better way to say it is that I am that piece of land. And that land is a country, full of humans, who grow and change, make up politics, fall into crisis, elect leaders, everything you all do, and My physical body is affected by how stable this country, my people, are. My country has only been legally established for 150 years now-" I paused. "Oh my god."

"You're 150 years old?!" Adail exclaimed.

"No, no, way older, but, I totally forgot, but when you found me yesterday, it was my birthday." Everyone's jaw propped open.

"Fascinating," Ervil said.

"That might explain one thing," Varvial seconded. "Birthday curses aren't totally uncommon, though they're usually nasty. If you're truthin' on about crashin' yer wagon and waking up in a fantasy world, then there's a chance you caught a bad one. Fortunately, you'll be speakin' to Panala."

"And!" Lijal jumped in. "We can throw you a blessing party! It's what we do for folk who get the birthday curses! It's like, a birthday party and like a religious thing in one! But it's fun, don't worry!"

"Oh, you guys don't have to go through all that trouble for me, but thank you."

"Oh it's no problem for us," Lunin piped up. "We're usually partying anyways, so another won't hurt."

"Well, I guess I can't argue," I shrugged.

"Tell us more about your weird agin'!" Lijal was almost bouncing in excitement.

"Oh! Right. So, as I was saying before, my country has only been legally established for around 150 years, but, I've been around for much, much longer. I wasn't really born, but I was sorta brought into existence once settlers, well, settled. I lived and grew as a colony for about 4-500 years."

"What about yer family?" Lijal asked. "Were you livin on your own until you grew up?"

"Not really. I guess you could say the country, the man, who colonized my home, was my father."

"What's the Matthew Country like?"

"Oh! Right, it's not actually called Matthew. That's just a legal "human name" that I chose to introduce myself to people. Mostly friends call me Matthew, my boss sometimes when we go out for drinks."

"Wait, why do you have a boss? You're the country, you should be leadin!"

"Well, after a while, us countries stopped having a lot of say in how we run ourselves. In the older times, we'd be right hand-men, or advisors, to kings and queens, but since we settled for a larger political system, with cabinets of ministers and everyone doing everything, we're mostly stuck as public figures, or celebrities. We still have to do a lot of paper work, though. Bad deal if you ask me."

Lunin spoke next. "Well then, how about a little insight to your family back home?"

"I wanna know more about the boy you said was like me!" Lijal piped up.

"Ah, Sealand. Yup, he's got a lot of potential, that's for sure. He's what's known as a Micronation. Not big enough to be a real country, but still has its own society. There's a king and queen, and they recently had a baby! You can even buy your own citcenship. His land isn't any island, it's actually an old base during one of my world's wars."

"Oh I like this Sealand! You think if we met that he'd like me?"

"I think you'd both get along perfectly, Lijal." Lijal smiled wider at that. "In fact, you all kind of remind me of the people back at my world."

"Oh, please do share," said Lunin.

"Well, Ms. Lunin, you definitely remind me of one of my caregivers, France. Same eyes, same attitude, but 'e talks like 'zis," I said, trying out my best French accent, and everyone laughed. "Adail, you remind me of my own brother, America. Alfred, unprofessionally. We're fraternal twins, but god, if I had a-a- a copper coin for all the times someone mistook me for him I'd be swimming in gold." Everyone laughed. "Adail, are you and Maural twins?"

"Sure are! Lijal gets his freckles from his mama. Kai's a second cousin of Sylvestre, so she's got the same glowing freckles, but Lijal's only glow when he's usin' magic."

"You hate my mama!" Lijal said cheerfully, but also matter of factly.

"I hate her and she hates me and we hate each other with all the fibre in our very beings," confirmed Adail. "But, Maural couldn't live without her, so I had to step aside. And Lijal's not a bad product of those two." Adail ruffled Lijal's hair. Lijal was a darker skinned child, who's hair was a bit curlier than mine, but his dark roots flared into a fiery orange. He was missing his two front teeth, they were probably going to grow in later.

"Yeah, Alfred's the same with a friend of mine, Carlos. Cuba, professionally. It was war times, Carlos agreed to store some weapons for a coworker of mine, Russia."

"Professionally?" Asked Ervil.

"Professionally. You actually remind me of him, Ervil. Big strong guy, but kind. Though if you get on his bad side, he could scare you to death with looks alone."

"Oh, don't worry, I know all about killing looks. You should have seen the chimera I fought a week back," Ervil smiled through his bushy beard, and I swear I could see a familiar dark aura surrounding him.

"What about us ladies?" Slyvestre spoke up. "Who do we remind you of?"

"You three, well, exactly. You remind me of the big three. Germany, Italy, and Japan are their professional names. I won't get into why they're so big, it'll just be a downer, but no matter what kind of conflict their governments get into, those three are inserperable." Sylvestre, Maribea, and Wiykai all looked flattered. "Sylvestre, you're like Italy. He's much less of a fighter, but he's real fun and upbeat! Wiykai, you're like Japan. A calm, but intimidating presence when need be. And Maribea... Wow. You're strong and amazing and just a natural born leader. But you're also so kind and calm, and I don't mean this in a jealousy way, but Adail has got to be one of the luckiest guys in the world."

"I sure am!" Adail shouted. He planted a large kiss on Maribea's cheek, who was trying not to blush.

"Varvial," I continued. "You're like the man I mentioned before as my father. Though I like to think you had a lot more time for your kids. Arthur was more connected to my brother, spent most of his time with him. I was never the kind to speak up about my lonliness," I said. "But," and as my thoughts connected, for the first time since I was a child, I did a magic trick England taught me. I put out my hand, and from it, as I spoke, many, many small glowing dots floated out of my hand, and slowly scattered around the campsite. "My brother could only see the magic creatures that befriended Arthur, but I could do magic. Arthur would sometimes spend a few days with me, teaching me what he knew. He taught me this, it was a simple trick, taking power from within, and scattering it. And then," And I reached my hand up into the sky, and then pulled it down, and all the floating lights swirled back into my hand in a beautiful spiral. I looked around, and saw that Lijal, sitting next to me, was handing me a hankercheif.

"You're cryin'," he said, a little worried. I brought a few fingers to my cheek, and found my cheek wet with tears. I smiled, and took the hankercheif to wipe my eyes.

"Sorry, I haven't been able to do that in... God, centuries, I think. I lost... a lot of my magic ability when I stopped using it."

"Why'd you have t' stop?" Lijal asked. "That was so pretty!"

I paused, wondering if I should even tell them. I sighed. "I... I'm not completely human. I'm technically immortal. I live and grow with my country, with my people, and my people,, humans can just be so afraid of what they don't understand. And they don't know what else to do except attack. I was staying with my brother in his land, and they came for us, and other magic users like us. But it was a _massacre_. Men killing innocent women and children, who knew nothing about magic. The people used their fear of witchcraft to hunt innocent people who didn't look or act like them, they got me, I-I-" And I stopped. Lijal was curled up against Adail, who's hand was firmly placed on Lijal's arm protectively. They both looked scared for me.

I shook my head. "Sorry, that got dark. Nowadays, we call those days The Salem Witch-hunts. And no one's used real magic since." I tried creating light once again, and this time, the lights stayed swirling slowly around my hand, emitting a blue light. "Though over the years, I've seen a few real magic users, some disguised as street performers. Hidden in plain sight. And even though I stopped, Arthur never closed off magic from me. It's what connected us, really."

"How'd the bad men get you?" Asked Lijal, quietly. "How'd you get away from dyin?"

"... I didn't." Lijal looked confused, and grew more nervous, shrinking into Adail's sided just a bit more. "That's one more thing about my kind; when our countries are untied, we're very death-resistant. I woke up later, found Alfred in a hiding spot we both knew about, and made our way to a safe village we knew we could trust before England came and took us back to his home to live with him for a while."

After a pause, Wiykai was the one to speak up. "What... what is dying like? We have ceremonies celebrating our fallen adventurers and soldiers who are killed in action, but we'll never know what death is like."

"Well, that's a big question to answer. The way you die, is most of the time, terrifying. If you're not ready to die, it's terrifying. But being dead isn't so bad. I've died many times, from wars and such. It's not scary to be dead. There's a darkness, but it's calming, like you're about to fall asleep in a comfy bed at home, where you know you're safe. I still don't recommend dying, though." A few chuckled. I clasped my hands together, ready to change the mood. "Well, that's enough sob stories from me today! Anyone up for hearing about the year I joined the Olympics?" Lijal energetically raised his hand.

"What's an Olympics?" he asked.

"Well, that's one fun story, Lijal," I responded.


	3. Off To See The Wizard

The next day and a half was spent on the road, with less room for breaks. We ate bread, and the occasional fruit we could collect during our few bathroom breaks. Maribea informed me that it was crucial to travel as far as we could go before resting for long periods of time. This stretch of forest was apparently crawling with chimeras. We had to use all kinds of disguise and smell-masking spells just to keep them off our trail. We were able to make it to the village by sunset of the third day. And whatever kind of town I was expecting, the village we came to blew all of that away.

The first most noticeable thing in this town was the centre of it. Stuck in the middle of a very large, very tall building, was a gigantic blue crystal. The building looked like it was built around the crystal, as there was nothing keeping it afloat but itself. The bottom half of the building was a four-story olden-office looking building, while the top half climbed up into a large hut. And on the sides of the building, was an elevator. I was able to catch someone going up. There was a glowing blue platform that burst with energy as the elevator car went up, and another blue platform at the top of the building caught it.

As we rode farther into town I could see how it was split up into four sections. To the north was residency and schooling. A large college could be seen at the outer reaches of the village, and I assumed schools for the younger children were also back there.

To the west was a shopping district. Markets and restaurants, all sorts of businesses. Three young orc women rode past on horseback laughing and smiling, all carrying what I assumed to be shopping bags, and we all exchanged a wave hello.

Plenty of people were coming in and out of the east side of town, and to it, we saw a road stretching far, far away, leading to farms, as well as a nearby park that families with young children were walking home from.

And from the way we came in was what I assumed to be the main gate, and the travelling district. There were wagons parked, and many, many stables for horses. I could see a few vehicles that were strange, but looked like they could be powered by magic. We actually saw a group of young boys check out some kind of board from a facility labeled 'Easy Travel - Magic Boarding Storage and Rentals', and after pulling out their wands, they hopped on their boards, which all levitated, and then sailed passed us and out of town.

"I have one of those!" Lijal said excitedly. "Adail doesn't trust those guys, so we keep mine in my room. I'm not very good at usin' it yet, I just got it for my birthday. You can only really use them if you know magic, or have a magic battery pack, but those are real expensive so- ah! Wait right here!" And without a second thought, Lijal jumped out of the wagon, and ran around the wagon, and towards an adult man, with firey orange hair, large round glasses, and holding a light purple bundled blanket, with a baby inside. Maural Vallance, overjoyed, outstretched his free arm, and gave his son a very big hug. I saw them converse for a moment, Lijal pointing to me, and I waved, and Maural waved back, though a bit hesitantly.

"Hey Maur!" Adail yelled, standing up and pointing at me. "We found your replacement! Have fun parenting!" Maural got Lijal to turn around, and smiling, gave Adail the bird.

"Sid'down, boy!" Shouted Varvial. "You'll fall off the damn wagon, and I'll be laughing when ya do." Adail stick out his tongue, and sat on the wagon's railing. "Matthew, you'll be headin straight to Panala, yer meetin's already been set up."

"When did you- you know what, never mind, I won't ask. Where does Panala live?" And Varvial nodded his head to the big building in the centre of town.

"Top of the tower," he said. "Use the elevator, stick your ring finger into the blue loop, and you'll be up in no time." The wagon suddenly stopped, and I realized we were already n front of the building. "Someone will meet up with you later to talk about housing. Might be me, might not. Now scat, the witch is waitin." So I got off the wagon, and went around the building to the elevator.

It was a old timey looking thing. Cylindrical, the top and bottom connected by four beams, and a handle-bar reaching to my waist, planted into the ground by bird cage-like beams. The door was a small fence that looked the same as the railing. It opened with ease, and I got in. Like Varvial said, there were 5 buttons. Or rather, five loops. The first four glowing a light orange, and the fifth loop at the top glowing a light blue. I placed my ring finger in it, and with a small ding, the elevator was pushed off the ground, and in under 10 seconds, I was at the top floor. The elevator car did a 180, and I was flipped around, and then there was another ding. I turned around and hesitantly walked through the curtained doorway.

I was instantly greeted to a familiar setting. The room was basically decorated like a small cottage. The walls were painted like autumn, leaves of gold, fire, and auburn. A large circular auburn rug was placed in the middle of a light oak floor. The walls had framed paintings, big and small. Placed on one wall was a very large painting of the town, but, it looked older. Or rather, newer. The residential district didn't have the large college in the back, there were fewer restaurants, even fewer houses. There was only a few small horse stables by the main gate, and instead of a large building surrounding the crystal, there was a small cottage underneath it, with a small duck pond, and small garden.

And then something nuzzled my thigh. I turned and looked to see a dog, maybe a large cat. And it was partially, a large cat. A lion's head nuzzled me, while a goat's head tried poking it's small horns into my leg, and an eagle's head squawked at me curiously. And once I registered that a chimera was acting like a cat, I jumped back about ten feet, a little more than afraid.

"Oh, no need to be afraid of Merina, she is harmless." The voice of an old woman, with the same accent as Ervil, coming from behind me, startled me even more. "No need to be afraid of me, jeez. You're an easy one to scare." I turned around, and saw who made me jump. In front of me, just over 4 feet tall, was a small old woman, with dark skin, hair as white as snow, and matching glowing freckles. She wore a small old-person dress with a wool cardigan to match, and walked with a small cane. "I hear you're looking for answers? Here's a question from me though, how about that name of yours? I'd love to call you by it, but you seem to have plenty of them!"

"Oh! Right, I'm so sorry I should have introduced myself. My name is M... Canada."

"Going for a professional air, huh?"

"Matthew's just an alias. People back at my place aren't normally named Canada."

"That's true. So, you've gotten yourself into a bit of a situation, haven't you?"

"Yes, and, everyone's telling me you can help. I woke up here, but I'm not from here."

"Yes, yes, from a different world, like fiction." She paused. "How about some tea before we continue?"


End file.
